Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

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Introduction

Horatius Bonar (1808–1889), began writing hymns as a missioner at Leith, north of Edinburgh. After the devastating Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843 he became a Free Church of Scotland minister. Bonar was an avid writer of evangelical tracts, and had a great ministry among children. He was known for being intensely pastoral in his outlook, and in 1862 published God’s Way of Peace: a Book for the Anxious which was translated into three languages and sold over a quarter of a million copies in his lifetime. Ironically, he never heard his own hymns sung in his own church in Edinburgh, as his was one of the Free Church congregations to oppose the introduction of hymns! I heard the voice of Jesus say (based on Matthew 11: 28) was written in 1846, during what must have been an intensely stressful and painful time for Bonar himself in the immediate years after the 1843 schism.

The tune Kingsfold is an old English folksong of uncertain origin and date. First published in English Country Songs (1893), an anthology compiled by Lucy E Broadwood and J A Fuller Maitland, Vaughan Williams arranged it for The English Hymnal of 1906, supposedly having heard it in the village of Kingsfold, near Horsham in West Sussex.

Recordings

Westminster Abbey rings with the voices of the choir and organ lifted in the great hymns which are a vital part of our national character and history. The recording brings the experience of Abbey occasions—from royal weddings to state funerals—int ...» More

Details

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
‘Come unto me and rest;
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down
Thy head upon my breast’:
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn, and sad;
I found in him a resting-place,
And he has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
‘Behold, I freely give
The living water, thirsty one;
Stoop down, and drink, and live’:
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quench’d, my soul reviv’d,
And now I live in him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
‘I am this dark world’s light;
Look unto me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy day be bright’:
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In him my star, my sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk
Till travelling days are done.